Inside or Out

WESTERN EUROPE

Closer and closer comes the time when Britain must decide to join Western Europe or to stand permanently apart. Within months, the six continental Common Market powers will reduce tariffs sharply between one another, leaving Britain at a trade disadvantage. The continental Six are also inching toward some form of political as well as economic unity. A rising chorus of British voices demands that Britain shrug off its reluctance and take the plunge before the mold of European unity hardens with Britain outside. "Time is not working for us," cried the influential Lord Gladwyn,* urging British membership in the Common Market. "The great thing is to get negotiations started now!" A passel of influential British editorialists are nudging the government to take action.

Last week another nudger arrived in London. West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was met by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan as he arrived by special train at London's Victoria Station. They sped off to Admiralty House for the latest round of Anglo-German talks. Adenauer had come in his role of middleman between Britain and the Continent.

The sticking point is Charles de Gaulle's glittering scheme for a European confederation, which other members of the Six feared would create a separate European bloc within NATO. Though De Gaulle has since dropped much of the plan, Netherlands Foreign Minister Joseph M.A.H. Luns still demanded that Britain be brought into any further discussions.

No, said the French; the British must first agree to join the Common Market itself. The British as usual counter that to draw closer to Europe means drawing away from the Commonwealth, which they do not want to do. How can Britain get in on the discussions without committing itself? Adenauer outlined to Macmillan a solution of the kind so beloved by diplomats: Why not get the British into the European conversations through the existing but moribund seven-nation Western Europe Union? It was plainly a stall. Sooner or later Britain must make the decision itself: inside Europe, or out.

* Formerly Sir Gladwyn Jebb, longtime diplomat, once Britain's delegate to the U.N., most recently Ambassador to France.

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